


The People Who Get Opportunities

by nnozomi



Category: The Marlows - Antonia Forest
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-02 14:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19200763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nnozomi/pseuds/nnozomi
Summary: Karen has a conversation on her last day at Oxford.





	The People Who Get Opportunities

Karen took a polite sip of what she hoped would be her last cup of tea of the day; each and every tutor had offered her tea, with Miss Ives running to a plate of biscuits as well, and she had not felt able to refuse any of them, given what she was already turning down.

Her last visit, while outside her own School, was to one of the Fellows who had originally interviewed her for the college, and who now held the unofficial title of Oldest Inhabitant. Karen had felt somehow that it was only right to pay her a visit as well, and so she had made her appointment and delivered her news.

“Are you having a baby?” with the bluntness of the old.

“No!” said Karen horrified. “He’s always been very c—I mean—“

“Well, good. You haven’t _completely_ scotched your prospects, then.” The tutor sniffed and fingered her nose. “There’s some very good work done by women who have been widowed, these days.”

There really seemed no way of answering that, and Karen smiled, took a deep breath and asked about the current state of historical research. To her relief, the tutor took an interest in Edwin’s new position, and they spoke of regional history and document preservation for some minutes, before the angle of the sun outside the small leaded window impelled her to take her leave.

“I used,” the tutor said thoughtfully, as Karen rose, “to think that marriage was the worst thing that could happen to an intelligent woman. Then I was given cause to think that it might be the best, in the right circumstances.” Before Karen’s imagination could begin to range over this, the tutor went on, “I concluded, however, that the right circumstances were vanishingly far between. Yours, Miss Marlow, may be so wrong that they can be nothing else.”

Karen decided that the ambiguity of the last phrase was better left unexplored. “I’ll do my best with them,” she said, and turned at the door for courtesy. “Thank you again for everything, Miss Hillyard.”


End file.
